I've been a competitive swimmer now for 18 years (makes me feel old just to say it) and I'm pregnant with my first child. I keep reading that you don't have to modify your swimming workouts when you're pregnant, but in those same websites, I see things like "Try doing *** stroke to eliminate the strain of torso rotation" so I know they haven't the slightest clue about competitive swimming or real training.
So my question is, does anyone have any good resource for how hard you can push yourself swimming while pregnant? And don't tell me to ask my doctor because I'm guessing she knows even less about swimming than "babycenter.com". My primary concern is with becoming slightly hypoxic while swimming (during flip turns and underwater pull outs). I often come up a little breathless, but am okay within a stroke or two. If I weren't pregnant, I wouldn't think anything about this, but it's hard to know if that's "bad" for the little one.
Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.:drown:
Parents
Former Member
My theory (and I'm not a doctor, so take it with a grain of salt) is that you can't go by some arbitrary HR limit. It's much more important to know what YOUR body can do. For me, I'm not having a problem if I get my HR to 140-150 because I recover pretty quickly (i.e within a couple of minutes). But for others, even getting up to 120 could be a problem if they don't recover for a long time.
This is what I wonder about too. Max HR changes with fitness/activity levels. Over the years my AT tested as low as 150, and as high as 171. When it was 171, I could hit 120 without doing much of anything (resting HR in the 70's). At 150, I had to work harder to get to 120 (resting HR in the 50's). So when they throw the 120 out there, what are they looking for? Shouldn't it be a percent of AT?
We're still trying to conceive #2, and I just started in a masters program (instead of going at it on my own). My hope is to keep swimming with them for as long as I can once I do get pregnant.
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Former Member
My theory (and I'm not a doctor, so take it with a grain of salt) is that you can't go by some arbitrary HR limit. It's much more important to know what YOUR body can do. For me, I'm not having a problem if I get my HR to 140-150 because I recover pretty quickly (i.e within a couple of minutes). But for others, even getting up to 120 could be a problem if they don't recover for a long time.
This is what I wonder about too. Max HR changes with fitness/activity levels. Over the years my AT tested as low as 150, and as high as 171. When it was 171, I could hit 120 without doing much of anything (resting HR in the 70's). At 150, I had to work harder to get to 120 (resting HR in the 50's). So when they throw the 120 out there, what are they looking for? Shouldn't it be a percent of AT?
We're still trying to conceive #2, and I just started in a masters program (instead of going at it on my own). My hope is to keep swimming with them for as long as I can once I do get pregnant.
